


Lucky Habits

by CandiedClassics



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blow Jobs, M/M, Mutual Masturbation, Oral Sex, Pining, Post Season 3, Sexual Tension, Some sinful lip licking, The Stupid Altean Pool, injured keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-24
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2019-02-06 06:23:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12811551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CandiedClassics/pseuds/CandiedClassics
Summary: Lance has a habit of licking his lips before he takes particularly difficult shots with his blaster.Keith has begun to notice said habit and it's slowly driving him mad.Thankfully, Lance isn't as oblivious as he seems.





	Lucky Habits

**Author's Note:**

> “So, what did you want again?”
> 
> “I asked why you do that. The tongue thing.”
> 
> “Tongue thing…?”
> 
> “Why do you lick your lips before you shoot?” [...]
> 
> “Why do you want to know? Is it…distracting~?”
> 
> Yes.

 

          

            “Lance, take the shot!”

            Keith’s patience was lower than usual as he struggled to pilot Black through the team’s latest defensive maneuver. It was more of a scramble really, as all five Lions were doing all they could to avoid being taken out by an entire fleet of Galra fighters and a rather imposing battle cruiser that was twice the size of what they were used to.

            It was good that they had been in the area when the distress call from one of their rebel allies came through. Their cargo ships had been in the middle of transporting medicine and supplies when they were attacked on route and had very few means of defense against a fleet so large. Luckily, Allura hadn’t hesitated to order the team into action.

            Keith may not have been adjusting as well as he would have liked to his new position as leader of Voltron but thankfully a touch and go defensive mission only required him to be a good fighter pilot and that much he could do.

            He’d managed to cleave a nasty hole in the Galra battle cruiser leading this ambush thanks to Black’s jaw blade but the ion canon was still functional and it was currently charging up and aiming straight for the cluster of damaged cargo ships still struggling to get their engines working.

            Keith quickly pulled up a video feed with the Red Lion and he could see Lance distractedly piloting his way out of a barrage of fighters.

            “The canon is about to fire Lance! You have to shoot now!” He ordered and Lance spared Keith a glance, his face pinched in concentration and distress.

            “Calm down mullet I’ve got this!” he shouted back and Keith noticed Red flying past his view window, the Lion poising itself with it’s tail lifted and mouth open as it charged up to make a devastating blast.

            “Lance—“ Keith’s voice held an edge of nervous warning as he noticed the light on the ion canon getting much brighter.

            “I know I know!” Lance snapped, his voice tight with strain.

            Keith turned the Black Lion suddenly and thrust forward, deciding to get as many of the cargo ships out of the range of fire as he could manage. He was too distracted with his own down to the wire rescue to focus much on his second in command, but neither of them bothered shutting off the camera feed.

            “Okay…we’ve got this Red…”

            Lance’s voice was much lower, clearly meant for no one but himself and his new Lion but the words still drew Keith’s gaze to his image on the screen.

            If he had blinked, he would have missed it.

            A moment later, the blinding explosion from the decimated ion canon consumed most of his attention.

            With their main defensive weapon out of order, the Galra fleet soon retreated and the rest of team Voltron helped carry the rebel cargo ships to the nearest docking planet to start mapping out a new route and making quick repairs.

            Keith noticed the video feed was still running and smiled fondly as he saw Lance slumping back in his chair with relief.

            “Not too bad, sharpshooter.”

            The other paladin jumped, his head jerking towards his forgotten audience. He sat up and smiled back, a familiar gesture with just a hint of his overconfidence coming through in the glint of his teeth.

            “Thanks, team leader.” He gave a playful salute and Keith noticed a light sheen still visible on Lance’s lips before the feed was finally closed.

 

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

            The training deck was busy that morning.

            It was over a week since the Galra had launched their rather poorly planned ambush and there hadn’t been much activity beyond the occasional patrols cruisers spotted over currently conquered planets.

            Still, Shiro had suggested they spend the day doing more combative training. It had been a while since they had entered any battle or mission that required the team to leave their Lions and he didn’t want them getting rusty.

            Keith agreed that it was a good idea, bolstering Shiro’s command with his support. It was most of what he had been doing as leader since Shiro had returned. He didn’t mind too much, the black paladin was far better suited to the position than him. Still, he felt more like an advisor than the head of the universe’s most powerful weapon.

            The training room was large enough for the team to divide into three separate groups with Coran overseeing from the viewing window above.

            Pidge and Allura were at the farthest part of the room, running a training sequence against the robotic gladiators to further work with both the close and long range capabilities of their whip-like weapons.

            Shiro and Keith were in the center part of the room on the sparring mats. Keith was good at close combat, but he relied on his bayard and his dagger too much. Shiro opted to help him get better at hand to hand with some old fashioned grappling.

            Finally, Hunk and Lance were stationed in the part of the room closest to the window. They would be doing some target practice on a hologram simulation Coran had set up. It involved a large robotic orb flying about the space and releasing smaller holographic flying drones for the two gunmen to pick off. Hunk needed to perfect his aim and Lance was always up for showing off a little.

            Coran had erected a wall from the invisible maze between each section for everyone’s safety but they could still observe one another as they pleased.

            Keith and Shiro had watched Allura and Pidge for a bit after a few warm up sessions and Keith had to admit that Allura’s fighting prowess far exceeded his expectations. Shiro didn’t seem too surprised; the princess was easily the strongest person on the ship.

            It wasn’t long before they were pulling their fighting stances once more and Keith was taking leveling breaths. Shiro was larger but his size never hindered his speed. He had very few weak spots. Assessing the situation was pointless. Best to go on instinct.

            Keith made the first move, feigning a strike to the head and when Shiro blocked, he aimed a punch for his solar plexus.

            Before his fist could even connect, there was a harsh impact to the back of his neck and his head suddenly felt like it was vibrating. His knees were kicked in and Shiro had grabbed his shoulders and forced him back onto the mat before he could blink twice.

            “Don’t be too hasty. Recklessness opens up your blind spots.” He instructed. Keith nodded but the moment Shiro stood up once more he rolled, kicking the black paladin’s legs out from under him. Their commander went down with a harsh thud and Keith, quickly pressed one knee to his gut and went to ram his forearm against his neck to cut off air flow, hoping a bit of light choking would finally get Shiro to tap out.

            There was a loud crackle of electricity as something hit the invisible wall to his right. He looked over and could vaguely see Lance and Hunk’s forms cowering back to back in the midst of a veritable tornado of what looked to be dozens of flying drones.

            Hunk was trying to use his canon to lay down a suppressing fire but the drones were clearly too fast for his blasts to make much difference, most of the beams piercing the cloud of holograms and hitting the invisible wall and other areas of the training deck. Lance wasn’t having much more success, his blaster barely managing to pinpoint one drone before it was out of range.

            Keith could vaguely feel Shiro’s metal hand holding back his forearm but it seemed the black paladin was equally distracted by their teammate's situation.

            Coran didn’t seem too hard pressed to end the simulation any time soon.

            “Lance! There are too many of them! We should stop!” Hunk called over the metallic whirring. Lance didn’t respond; his gaze focused elsewhere. Keith quickly found what his eyes were trained on.

            The flying orb that was responsible for spewing out all of the holograms was still lingering in the space far above them. It was almost completely obscured by the many drones it continued to spit out, creating a cloud of interference that made targeting it useless.

            Getting a shot at it would be nearly impossible.

            Which was exactly why Lance was positioning to take said shot.

            “Don’t worry buddy, just leave it to me” Lance said with a smirk, angling his blaster towards the orb.

            Keith could see the split second that Lance schooled his body to shoot. He grew incredibly still, seemingly immune to the chaos around him. His breathing leveled out and he blinked once before wiping his smirk away with a quick lick of his lips.

            Keith forgot to breathe.

            The robotic orb crashed to the ground in a flurry of sparks and smoke, the holograms vanishing around Lance and Hunk as if a fog had been blown away. Lance was posing with the barrel of his bayard cocked on his shoulder, probably boasting about his shooting prowess while Hunk attempted to quell Coran who was complaining loudly through the speakers about the busted training bot.

            Keith grunted as the world suddenly spun on his head and he was brutally flipped onto the mat, knocking what little air he had out of him. The burning in his lungs had him rolling on his side and he looked up as Shiro got to his feet.

            “Best not to get distracted next time.” He said, his smile much more knowing than Keith was comfortable with. He turned away as Coran dispelled the invisible walls and Keith watched their commander give Lance a pat on the back, congratulating him on his impressive shot.

            The smile that parted Lance’s annoying lips had Keith swallowing back a dozen praises that suddenly flooded his thoughts.

            He left the training deck before Lance ever got the chance to brag to him personally.

            No doubt he would hear about it over dinner anyways.

 

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

            That training session had been a good idea because it was hardly a week later before team Voltron was being sent on a covert mission to extract data from two isolated Galra battle cruisers.

            Keith would have liked to think he was becoming a better leader for the team but judging from his current standing, he wouldn’t hold his breath on that.

            “Keith, on your right!”

            He spun and quickly plunged his sword into the sentry that had managed to evade Lance’s blaster fire. He watched the blue paladin quickly fire a couple shots down the narrow corridor they had found themselves in before pulling his bayard out and hunching back over the small generator he was currently harvesting quintessence from.

            If their theories were correct, then the Galra had found a new way to use quintessence, allowing wormhole usage without the aid of a druid.

            It was key that they get whatever they could but splitting up the team to gather data from each ship separately had proven a bad choice on his part. Neither of the ships had contained biorhythms but apparently they hadn’t properly estimated the sheer number of robotic sentries still active on board.

            Somehow all the remaining sentries had converged on the hall he and Lance were operating in and it was all the other paladin could do to hold them off with suppressing fire seeing as the bots were coming from both directions. And with the team split up in two different star systems, communications were nothing more than radio static.

            “Keith I can’t hold them off! We have to go!” Lance yelled over the opposing blaster fire that was beginning to become more of an issue.

            One glance in either direction showed he was right. The amount of sentries in the corridor was so great they were practically scraping the walls to get to them.

            Keith looked back at the generator and was relieved to see the extraction container filled with the sample they needed. Pocketing the tube on his belt, he quickly replaced the generator panel and stood up beside Lance.

            “Cover me from behind! I’ll clear a path.” He ordered and quickly took to the right hand corridor where he started to hack away at the incoming sentries. Lance picked off several with his blaster and they began to make there way back towards the docking bay where Red was waiting for them.

            They had been making a sizable dent at first but for every sentry they cut down, two more seemed to take its place. Keith growled in frustration.

            “There’s too many! We need to cut them off!”

            He could hear the familiar blaster fire from the red bayard grow sparser and he glanced back to see Lance on his tiptoes, peering over the dozens of sentry heads at something that seemed out of immediate eyesight.

            “Lance what are you doing? Focus on firing!” he snapped, sparks erupting around him as he skewered two sentries at once.

            “There’s a door back there! I can see the panel!” Lance seemed pretty sure of himself and Keith had no time to confirm this. The longer they hesitated, the harder it was getting to dodge the wayward blaster fire the sentries were dishing out, no matter how poorly aimed.

            “Then what are you waiting for?!”

            “Cover me!”

            Lance jumped up against the walls of the corridor and managed to get a grip on one of the metal beams that ran along the low ceiling. This put him in view of the panel but left him vulnerable to blaster fire. Not to mention he only had one hand to shoot with. Keith cursed and tried to focus on keeping Lance from becoming an easy target but he was starting to get overwhelmed in such a tight space.

            “Lance would you—“

            His thoughts ceased abruptly as he watched Lance take a deep breath, blink once and lick his lips with a sinful swiftness that made it hard to breathe or hear anything over the thudding in his chest.

            Then there was a sudden, intense pain in his head that made his body lurch forward and his vision momentarily black out.

            Keith managed to catch himself before he could fall over and staggered towards the wall for support. The shrill ringing in his ears left him disoriented and confused. Distantly, he saw a flash of blue and heard a loud crunch as the nearby door came down on several sentries, impeding any more from entering through the left most corridor.

            He tried to shake off the pain and dizziness; he couldn’t sit here and leave Lance to do this alone. But the moment he stood up straight he felt like he would throw up and he had to put most of his weight on his sword, much like one would with a cane.

            The muffled flurry of blaster fire was dying down and Keith looked up to see Lance walking towards him, his confident grin sliding off his face half a second later.

            “Woah, dude what happened?!”

            Keith groaned in response, shaking his head and regretting it immediately. Lance’s voice was warbled under the persistent ringing but the tone of panic and concern was unmistakable all the same.

            “Got hit...hit my helmet…” he ground out and reluctantly accepted the shoulder Lance offered him to lean on.

            “Aw geez…it looks like you took a blaster shot to the head…lets hurry up and get you to Red. Coran said they’re stationed over in the next system, think you can make it?”

            Keith nodded and the two of them made their way through the corridor, which was now littered with enough sentry bodies to have filled up half a fleet. It was slow going but Lance didn’t force Keith along, letting him take his time to gather footing so he wouldn’t bring them both crashing to the ground. They only ran into a few more interfering bots but it was nothing Lance wasn’t capable of taking out one handed.

            After what felt like ages the two of them made their way up the ramp and into the cockpit of the Red Lion. Lance was surprisingly careful in how he handled Keith, even making sure to set him down slowly so as not to upset his head injury.

            “I’m gonna see if I can contact the castle from here. Hopefully they can have a healing pod ready by the time we get there.” Lance said as he worked with the control panel and viewing screens to try and establish a connection.

            Keith was beginning to find his helmet more than a little intrusive and he removed it abruptly, wincing when his head throbbed in complaint but taking relief in the fresh air he got in return.

            No sooner had he closed his eyes for a brief rest, he was opening them to find Lance kneeling in front of him, eyes narrowed in concern. One glance to the viewing window said they had already left the Galra cruiser. He couldn’t recall when they had even taken off.

            “You probably have a concussion.” He diagnosed, reaching out with one hand to cup the side of Keith’s face while the other gently probed the back of his head.

            He was assaulted by a fiery throbbing the moment Lance found the area of impact and he impulsively grabbed the other paladin’s wrists to try and pull his hands away.

            “Quit touching it—I don’t need you babying me.” He hissed.

            Lance just rolled his eyes, undeterred by Keith’s ever-bitchy behavior.

            “’Scuse me. I’ll try to remind myself not to carry you to safety the next time you get yourself shot.” He argued and pulled his arms away to cross them over his chest. “Look I’m not trying to hurt you okay? I’m actually pretty familiar with how concussions work. I just want to make sure you aren’t bleeding internally. Your head definitely doesn’t need anymore swelling.”

            Keith scoffed. “Like you’re one to talk.”

            He relented nonetheless and leaned forward to let Lance get a proper look. The blue paladin smiled in approval, reaching out to gently cup Keith’s face again before tilting him forward so he could look at the back of his head.

            It didn’t hurt as much when Lance touched the growing bruises a second time and he found that the other’s hold on him helped keep the dizziness and nausea to a minimum. It was grounding.

            “It’s a good thing our paladin armor is made of tough stuff. Half your skull could have been blown off.”

            And there was the nausea again. Keith moaned weakly and Lance chuckled.

            “Sorry. Guess I’m not used to dealing with weak stomachs outside of Hunk’s.” He pulled back a moment later and Keith groaned again but it was more in protest than nausea. Lance didn’t seem to notice.

           “Few hours in a healing pod will fix ya right up. But you can’t sleep till then, just to be on the safe side.”

           Keith slowly lifted his head and when his eyes finally focused, he realized just how close Lance was to him. He was staring right at his mouth, but the words coming out weren’t of interest to him.

           That mouth.

           Those lips.

           His mind flashed back to the sight of Lance dangling from the ceiling, pointing his gun down the hall and running his tongue over his lips. Just like he had on the training deck. Just like he had in the ambush.

           They were the whole reason he got hit.

           It was all Lance’s fault.

           Before Keith could sort out his thoughts properly, he had gripped Lance by the shoulder, roughly shoving against his chest until he’d slammed the other paladin around into the wall he had just been leaning on.

           “Why do you do that?!” He shouted, his voice way too loud and disorienting in his ears. Lance was at a loss for words for once, staring up at Keith in wide-eyed confusion. He tried to move but the pressure of Keith’s hand on his chest only increased and kept him in place.

           “I… Keith what are you talking about? Get off.” he snapped after a moment, his hand grasping the other’s wrist. Keith growled and grabbed Lance’s chin with his free hand, pressing his thumb over his lips as if to silence him.

           Keith’s thoughts were firing off in his head like wayward fireworks and making it hard to decipher what he was trying to do here. All he knew was that Lance was pissing him off again but not in the usual way.

           He couldn’t explain it and it made him even angrier.

           “Why do you--?! That--! Urgh…” He hung his head and cursed. He couldn’t focus on what he wanted to say, his breath coming out a bit more labored and the dizziness of his sudden movements finally catching up with him. He felt Lance’s lips move under his thumb and the sudden mood swing seemed to leave him like a wave ebbing from the shoreline.

           He looked up at Lance and met the other’s gaze finally. He had been staring at Lance’s offending lips the entire time; he hadn’t noticed the way the blue paladin was looking at him.

           It wasn’t the anger or irritation he had been expecting, but rather a concerned patience. He had seen the look in Shiro’s eyes more times than he could count but on Lance it felt…different.

           Lance lifted Keith’s hands from his mouth and chest and sat up a bit straighter.

           “Geez, you’re really weird when you’re out of it.” Lance smiled and stood up slowly, helping Keith lean back on the wall again. “Better get you to a pod before you try to strangle me or something. No sleeping before then or Pidge and I will draw on your face again.”

           Lance sat back in his pilot’s chair and steered Red out of the solar system with ease, as if nothing strange was hanging in the air between them.

           Keith stared at the burn mark on the back of his helmet and tried to remember what had made him so angry in the first place.

 

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

            Lance had been right in his diagnosis; Keith had managed to get himself rather brutally concussed from that blaster hit. Thankfully, Altean healing pods hadn’t failed to work miracles yet and after a three-hour cryo nap, Keith was feeling right as rain.

            Shiro had been in the med bay when he came out and he explained that the mission had been successful on Pidge, Allura and Hunk’s end as well. The team had already had dinner and were now out expending the little free time they had before bed.

            Allura and Coran were busy testing the quintessence samples on the bridge and Shiro left to go join them. Having been left to his own devices, Keith decided to head to the kitchen for some dinner.

            Hunk, being the saintly man he was, had taken some of the ravioli looking food he’d made and left it for Keith on one of the warming shelves. Keith ate the meal appreciatively, a little confused by the spicy citrus taste the ravioli had, but not at all adverse to it.

            When he finished, he decided to walk down to the Lion hangars and spend some time with Black. His head still felt a little muddled from the concussion and he couldn’t recall much of what happened between getting hit and waking up in the castle but he vaguely remembered Red’s emotions and thoughts lingering at the edge of his mind while he had been in the cockpit. She’d seemed…exasperated.

            Still, as much as it confused him, his lingering connection to Red reminded him that he still had a very long way to go with the Black Lion. If he was supposed to be the leader Shiro insisted he had to be, he would have to make more of an effort.

            The walk to the hangars was a long one, and Keith tried to take the time to clear his head as he marched down the tall, empty corridors. It wasn’t till he turned onto the hall that held the entrance to the training deck that he heard something.

            It sounded like blaster fire. He paused and took a few hesitant steps towards the door, which whooshed open the moment it recognized his presence.

            Confirming his suspicions, Lance was on the training floor. He was alone and had his back to Keith so he didn’t notice when the other paladin came in. Lance seemed to be doing another targeting simulation, but this one was far less intense.

            It simply produced a series of holographic targets along a blank, protected wall for Lance to shoot at. The catch was that some would move while others were incredibly tiny.

            Lance took his time with each shot, carefully poising his new bayard in his hands before firing. For the tiny, hard to hit targets, Keith noticed that Lance would do his typical routine before firing.

            Breathe. Blink. Lick. Shoot.

            Keith scowled, feeling warmth in his cheeks that was becoming annoyingly familiar in association with Lance. Yes, he was more than aware that certain…feelings regarding his teammate had been lingering under the surface for a while now. Feelings that were becoming much harder to ignore with the installation of their new rankings.

            The amount of personal consulting they did now would have likely appalled the Lance that had insisted on hating him from the moment they’d made eye contact. He liked to think they were past that. Sometimes it was hard to tell.

            Keith watched Lance shoot for a while, always taking note of the half second before a shot when he would wet his lips. Lips that he had been having less than platonic thoughts about for some time.

            He spoke before his brain could catch up with his mouth.

            “Why do you do that?”

            “WOAH HOLY--!?”

            Lance’s blaster went off in surprise and the shot went far past the target, ricocheting off the viewing window before hitting the wrestling mats and making a nasty burn mark.

            The damage hardly fazed the blue paladin, who spun around on Keith and looked at him as if _he_ were the jumpy one holding the weapon right then.

            “Where the heck did you come from? Geez, give a guy a warning…” he said, rubbing the back of his neck and exhaling away some of the tension that had built up from his practice. “Pause training sequence!” he called and the system did just that, the moving targets freezing where they were on the wall. He turned back to Keith with a vague interest in his eyes that he failed to disguise with boredom.

            “So, what did you want again?”

            “I asked why you do that. The tongue thing.”

            “Tongue thing…?”

            “Why do you lick your lips before you shoot?”

            Lance blinked and seemed like he was still at a loss for a moment before the realization hit.

            “Oh that? I still do that? Huh I guess I didn’t notice…”

            “You only do it for difficult shots. Or so it seems…”

            Lance’s expression turned flirtatious and he cocked his head at Keith playfully.

            “Why do you want to know? Is it… _distracting_ ~?”

            Yes.

            “No way.” Keith rolled his eyes and tried to ignore Lance’s dazzling smirk while he fought down the heat that desperately wanted to crawl across his face. “Why the heck would that be distracting? Don’t make it weird.” He scolded. Lance held up his hands in surrender and turned back to the simulation wall.

            “It’s nothing special really. Just one of my lucky habits. Resume training sequence!”

            Keith watched the holograms begin to move and reform on the wall, taking a seat on the stack of Altean weight squares that they used on the barbells. He was still close enough to talk to Lance without putting himself in the line of fire.

           “Lucky habit? What’s that?”

           Lance chuckled and looked at Keith with an expression that had the red paladin awkwardly looking in the other direction.

           “Sometimes I forget you lived like a desert hermit. Lucky habits are like…I don’t know…little rituals or something.” Lance continued shooting simulation targets as he spoke. “Just something you do that sort of...seals the deal. Makes you more confident. It’s kind of superstitious I guess.”

           “Seems kind of pointless.” Keith stated and almost immediately wished he hadn’t. That probably sounded way ruder than he had meant it.

           Lance just shrugged.

           “They aren’t supposed to have a point really. Hunk has a special pen that he always uses during exams. He chews the cap sometimes when he gets really focused. It’s kind of a self-comfort thing. I borrowed it from him one time and he flipped out when he couldn’t find it before our astrological chem test.”

           Keith nodded in understanding even though Lance couldn’t see him. It didn’t make much sense to him but he supposed if anyone would have a lucky exam pen, it would be Hunk.

           “Lucky habits are a huge thing in baseball. You see it all the time. Pitchers will turn their caps before a throw or some batters will tap their bat to the plate three times exactly before even raising it for the swing. That’s where I picked up mine actually. My sister Mariella and I were on the softball team at our high school.” Lance picked off a particularly pesky hologram target and did a small fist pump before continuing.

           “I was always a better pitcher. Abuela said I had one hell of an arm. Probably from playing fetch with our dog Frito since I was eight.” Lance’s eyes took on a familiar distant look that he often got when reminiscing about his family back in Cuba. It always made Keith a little envious. He wished he had a family to return to at all. But at the same time, it made leading this new destiny much easier for him and all the more difficult for Lance.

           “Mariella noticed I would stick my tongue out whenever I wound up for a pitch and always teased me for it. But I couldn’t help it. So licking my lips became my lucky habit. Not that she could say anything, she always kicked the plate before she would bat. Coach never liked that much since it could be called a foul.” Lance laughed and ended up missing one of the targets. He had been missing quite a few if the burn marks on the wall were much to go by, but even Keith hadn’t taken much notice. He had been too focused on the way Lance smiled when he spoke of home.

           Lance lowered his bayard to its stationary form and called for the end of the training sequence before turning his full attention to Keith.

           “You know, my pitching won us plenty of games. I was so good, people on the team would call me ‘Lucky Lance’!”

           Keith smiled, amused and disbelieving as he got off the stack of weights and started following Lance out of the room.

           “You can’t be serious.”

           “I am! I was their secret weapon! I got us to regionals!” Lance exclaimed, eager to defend his little league baseball title to his dying breath. It was incredibly endearing and Keith couldn’t help but laugh.

           “Well I’m never calling you that. You already want to be the ‘ninja sharp shooter’.”

           “Because that’s what I am!”

           Keith couldn’t remember laughing this easily in a while. Not since this all started really. He hadn’t even noticed they were walking away from the hangars and back towards their bedrooms till they had taken the lift up a few floors rather than down.

           Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for an awkward silence to descend once more over the two of them. Keith was beginning to debate on making an excuse to part ways when Lance decided to chime in again.

           “So…why did you want to know so bad?” His voice was noticeably more tentative and serious and Keith could tell the playfulness from earlier had long since passed.

           “What do you mean?”

           “About my lucky habit…you asked something similar before when you were concussed. You were angry too…you actually seemed pretty bothered by it.”

           “Really? I did?” Now it was Keith’s turn to be confused.

           He’d asked that to Lance before? He couldn’t remember very well. The more he thought on it though; he could vaguely recall pinning Lance to a wall and holding a thumb over his lips.

           Oh no…

           “Well that must have been about something else. I can’t really remember.”

           “Riiiight….” Lance clearly wasn’t convinced but the fact that they were now stopped in front of his bedroom door gave cause to let it go. “Well I don’t know about you but I’m going to get some beauty rest so I don’t look like some brooding emo with an eighties haircut.”

           “Oh—would you lay off about my hair?!”

           Lance smirked and quickly took refuge in his room before Keith could slap the smirk off his face.

           “Never! Night!” the doors whooshed shut a moment later and Keith sighed.

           He was suddenly much more tired than anticipated. Bed sounded like a good idea. Bonding with Black could wait for another day.

 

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

            The week following Keith’s little concussive incident was pretty uneventful.

            The neighboring galaxies and star systems had been relatively quiet and any Galra outposts they crossed were easy to decommission in a simple two-hour stunt.

            It was rather boring and most of the team had taken to filling the free time with hobbies and bonding exercises. It was due to the excessive down time that Keith was beginning to notice that Lance did his ‘lucky habit’ a lot more frequently than previously surmised.

            Now whenever Lance made a stupid joke or flirtatious pass, typically at Allura, his finger guns would be accompanied by a quick swipe and purse of the lips. Keith had been caught taking keen notice of these little instances on more than one occasion but he was always quick to look away before Lance could try and call him out on being weirdly obsessed with his lips.

            Which he wasn’t. Of course not.

            Then there were the times when the team would share meals together in the dining hall. Keith typically spent these listening to Shiro talk strategy with Allura or joining him in a bit of Garrison reminiscing.

            It was in the middle of one of these old retelling’s that there was a sudden clatter and Keith looked over to see Lance complaining about spilling space soup all over his shirt while Hunk tried to help him mop up the mess. Lance said something that made Hunk laugh before suddenly running his tongue over his fingers one by one in a way that had Keith biting the inside of his cheek to hold back whatever noise of longing was trying to claw out of his throat.

            “Man, Hunk you’ve really outdone yourself. It tastes just like gumbo!” Lance complimented, licking his palms like a preening cat.

            “Lance don’t be gross, just use a napkin like a normal person.” Pidge scolded from her seat across from him and Lance looked aghast.

            “What? I don’t want to waste it! Who knows if Hunk will be able to perfect this taste again?” he countered to which Hunk looked mildly insulted.

            “I’ll have you know I’ve started to write down my recipes recently. I’ve almost managed to replicate the taste of clam chowder using ratzian bean sprouts and that weird orange eel thing we found on Bulpo 9.”

            While Hunk dished out more space gumbo and explained what sort of meals they could look forward to in the future, Lance picked up a napkin to dab at the mess on his shirt. He glanced up and momentarily caught Keith staring at him once again. But this time, Keith didn’t look away.

            A small smirk crossed Lance’s lips as he swiped his thumb through a bit of the soup that was still on the table and licked it off in a manor that was much too slow to be natural. He tossed Keith a wink before turning back to the conversation and asking Hunk to try and replicate key lime pie for him.

            Keith had thought about that stupid thumb-licking incident for four hours in bed that same night before deciding Lance was making fun of him in some new perverse way.

            Unfortunately, these sorts of instances only increased in consistency from then on. Every meal Lance would make eye contact with Keith at least once, deliberately lick his lips, fingers or spoon, wink and then go about his business like nothing had happened. No one else ever seemed to notice and if it weren’t for the way that Lance looked at him, with a gaze so steely sharp that it was branded into his brain, he would have thought he was slowly going insane and hallucinating it all.

            Whenever the team was on the training deck, Lance had gotten into the routine of calling for everyone to watch before he took an impressive shot.

            The others seemed to think this was just another excuse for Lance to boast about his skill but Keith noticed that whenever he would give his battle call for everyone to watch their ‘amazing ninja sharpshooter’ in action, he would always look at Keith before and after poising his blaster to fire. The shine of his grin before he fired and the sparkle in his eyes after it landed successfully was…strangely endearing. Keith always found himself smiling back.

            And now whenever they were in the lounge at the same time, Lance would always make some excuse to stretch out and take up all the space on the couch. This usually ended with him plopping his feet in Keith’s lap. Most of the time, Keith would just shove his legs off and walk away, but whenever he decided to stubbornly refuse to budge, he would instantly regret it.

            The red paladin would be forced to stay in place and watch Lance arch his back in a stretch, bite his lower lip and stare up at him with a sleepy wanton gaze that made Keith’s thoughts turn absolutely sinful.

            This was flirting right?

            It had to be.

            Keith couldn’t think of any reason someone would act so…weirdly lewd outside of a flirting context.

            Then again, this was Lance.

            The boy had been sold on Keith and him being rivals from day one and in his head, this could have been just another way to piss him off.

            Unfortunately, he was succeeding in that regard.

            The longer this went on, the more on edge Keith was becoming. He simultaneously wanted to throttle Lance for being such an obnoxious tease but also kiss him senseless for the same reason. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could deal with this; how much further his patience could be pushed

            Lance was quick to put that to the test as always.

 

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

            They had just liberated yet another planet from Galra reign and had been given a tip about a species a few quadrants over that was starting to revolt against the Galra on their own planet, Tralta 11. Coran was navigating them there and said it would be about a quintant before they arrived. Which meant they were left with a little over 24 hours to properly recuperate before their next fight.

            Since sleeping had been a frustrating effort recently, Keith initially decided to train some more. It took only half a varga to notice that the 7 hours of fighting and evasive maneuvers from earlier left him much too sore. In the end, he decided that he would spend the down time attempting to figure out how to enjoy the stupid Altean pool that had thwarted him before.

            That was until the moment he walked into the pool room and remembered that it was on the ceiling. A quick glance around the room didn’t show any control panels and since he wasn’t Altean, he couldn’t pull castle controls from thin air. He walked over to one of the four large columns on each corner of the rectangular pool, wondering how good his upper arm strength was to climb it when suddenly the side of the cylindrical column slid open like an elevator door and out stepped Lance.

            He was dripping wet with a towel around his neck and Keith was momentarily rooted where he stood. He opened his mouth to say something but the moment Lance saw him, he leapt to fill the silence.

            “Keith, my man! Turns out the pools not hard to get to! The columns are elevators that flip the gravity or something!” He said and ran a hand through his wet hair. Keith cleared his throat and pointedly looked anywhere but Lance’s face or chest.

            “Yeah I can see that.” he said and managed to move his feet again, attempting to side step around Lance who just as quickly put his leg out to stop him.

            “Not everyone is as dashingly clever as I am so don’t feel bad if you can’t figure it out. Just try not to fall in!” he signed off with his signature finger guns, a flash of his tell tale smirk and the swift, demonic lick of the lips that had been haunting Keith's mind for the past two weeks.

            His fists clenched and his teeth hurt and suddenly all the sexual frustration and lack of sleep was right at his finger tips.

            “Why do you keep doing that?”

            Lance shrugged and gave another dazzling smile as he moved to walk away.

            “Because it bugs you, duh.”

            Keith certainly wasn’t trying to make a habit of aggressively slamming Lance against hard surfaces but his impulses seemed to always make that the easiest solution to getting the other boy to shut up and stay put.

            Lance certainly had shut up, eyes wide and body tense from being roughly shoved against the column he’d just stepped out of. Keith had both hands on his shoulders pinning him in place but his eyes remained trained on the floor. He couldn’t get himself to make contact with those bright blue eyes that had been stamping flirtatious looks into his own over and over again.

            “Do you ever wonder _why_ it bugs me?!” he said, his voice coming out harsher than intended and echoing in the after silence.

            Keith flinched as he felt Lance grasp his wrist and he finally forced himself to look up at the irritatingly beautiful mess of a boy in front of him.

            Lance was…smiling. But not in the familiar, gloating or flirtatious way he’d come to know over the many months in his presence.

            This smile was chaste but intimate, and his eyes were kinder than he’d ever seen. He gently brought Keith’s hand up to his mouth and kissed the pads of his fingers delicately.

            “I have an idea yeah….but why don’t you tell me?” He let his tongue trail over his fingers as he spoke and when he looked up at Keith again, his gaze was once again full of familiar mischief.

            Keith had forgotten how to breathe again the moment his fingers touched Lance’s warm lips. It sent his heart on a painfully loud rampage in his chest and his thoughts felt like radio static.

            He opened his mouth, intending to finally let all the frustration and awful attraction he felt for his fellow paladin pour from his chest until the weight of it finally let him inhale again. But instead, his free hand cupped Lance’s cheek and his mouth found a much better way to say what he was feeling.

            Those hatefully teasing lips were softer than he could have ever imagined and despite his limited kissing prowess, Keith was quickly finding it difficult to keep the scenario entirely innocent. The moment Lance started to press back, Keith started to play dirty.

            His hand moved from Lance’s cheek to his hair where he scratched and tugged gently, trying to get a feel for every part of the boy he hadn’t been permitted to touch until now. He pulled Lance’s lower lips between his teeth and the sound that resulted made him feel lightheaded with need.

            He pulled back for a moment to try and reintroduce thought to his system. He wanted to remember this, to know it was real and permeating every one of his senses. Looking at Lance from this close was intoxicating, with nothing but heated gasps filling the space between them.

            “I hate you.”

            It was the only thing he could think to say that described the sheer torture he had been putting up with from the moment he had first seen Lance’s little lucky habit and realized what it did to him.

            The other paladin smirked and started running his fingers through Keith's thick black hair, making sure to tug at the long scruff playfully.

            “Could have fooled me, mullet.”

            And then Keith was on him again and any pretense of innocence or gentle reciprocation was thrown out the window.

            Lance was clearly better at kissing than he was but Keith wasn’t shy about trying to prove himself. The moment Lance parted his lips; he had pushed his tongue into that overly talkative mouth and tried to claim every part for himself. Lance tasted like the spices in Hunk’s space oatmeal that were as close to cinnamon and vanilla bean as you could get out there. The way he moved his tongue said he had done this before and the noises the boy managed to pull from Keith’s mouth were far too embarrassing to think about. So he didn’t.

            Neither of them seemed to find thinking too important really.

            It was clear from the way that Lance’s thigh rubbed in between his legs, from the way he arched his back till their chests were aligned, from the way he chased Keith’s mouth with his own as if parched to the core; that this had been the blue paladin’s end goal for the past week.

            And that only made Keith want to take him more. He couldn’t be bothered to feel too embarrassed when his arousal had become prominent enough to notice and he found himself hooking his thumbs into the other's swim trunks with the full intention of giving Lance everything that had been slowly brewing inside him for the past week and more.

            And then the door opened.

            Thankfully, the pool room had two entrances, a large door at either end. And the one that opened was not the one immediately behind them. Keith was more than immensely relieved at that.

            “Lance?” It was Hunk. Both boys quickly stopped sucking face and stayed perfectly still, trying to keep all their limbs as condensed as possible so nothing stuck out from their hiding spot behind the far column.

            Hunk seemed to take a few steps in before stopping.

            “Hey Lance? You in here? I finished that batch of cookies and I know you wanted first dibs.” He called. For a brief moment, Lance looked like he was tempted to take that offer, his head tilted to peer around the column in interest. Keith latched onto his neck with a not so gentle bite to remind him what exactly he would be trading for said cookies.

            Lance tensed and slapped a hand over his mouth to hold in any noise. The two stayed incredibly still and after a few moments, they could hear Hunk turn and walk back through the door to continue his search elsewhere. Keith pulled back from Lance’s neck and sighed loudly once the coast was clear.

            “That was cl—Woah!”

            The room spun for a moment as Lance suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders and whipped them around, slamming Keith against the column with a lustful grin on his face. He was quick to press right back up against his fellow paladin, making sure their hips slot together enough to share some friction between their erections.

            “You’ve been so obsessed with my mouth lately…I think it’s time I show you what it can really do.”

            Keith had never found that smirk so damn attractive and before he could show his appreciation, those lips were beating him to it once again. He felt Lance tilt his chin up, taking advantage of their very slight height difference to get Keith to bend to him. He didn’t fight Lance when the other parted his lips and pressed his tongue in his mouth, thoroughly showing Keith just how experienced he really was.

            Lance was far too good at this and the thought made a spike of jealousy burn through him that was all too soon quenched by the hands on his hips and the increasing friction around his crotch. He grasped the edge of Lance’s swim trunks once more and tried to pull them down, finding the clothing between them needlessly intrusive, but Lance quickly grabbed his wrists and forced him to stop.

            “Not so fast…let me show off.” He murmured, and it wasn’t negotiable.

            Lance trailed his mouth to Keith’s neck where he bit down, creating a matching mark to the one Keith had managed to leave. Lance immediately relieved the sting with his mouth; sucking harshly and making Keith’s knees feel weak. He kept one hand on Lance’s head, encouraging him to keep going since his voice was all but compromised with gasps and moans. Lance happily obliged, moving from his neck, down to his chest, running his tongue over pale skin and pert nipples till Keith was clawing the metal column behind him and trying not to scream.

            He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this aroused. Keith wasn’t exactly prone to much sexual desire, most of his senses constantly consumed with anger and vengeance; not to mention his habit of isolating himself certainly didn’t help.

            He groaned when he felt cool air on his cock and didn’t seem to realize what the sensation implied till he tilted his head down and finally noticed Lance was on his knees in front of him.

            Keith was thankful for the stable column behind him that kept him from collapsing completely with how the sight stole all the air from his lungs.

            “L-Lance…you don’t have to—“

            “Do you really think I would be on my knees right now if I didn’t want to?”

            Lance quirked a brow and winked at him, delivering way more confidence than Keith could even conjure up for himself. Then Lance was looking at his swollen length and he had to cover his face.

            Now really wasn’t the time to feel self-conscious but Keith couldn’t fathom that this was actually happening. He felt like he would open his eyes and find himself getting off in his bedroom to nothing more than a vivid fantasy.

            But the feeling of Lance’s mouth on him far surpassed his imagination. He choked on his breath and cursed when he felt wet heat he couldn’t comprehend all around him and his hands flew back down to Lance’s head, wanting to hold him back and pull him in for more at the same time.

            “Lance—wait-“

            “Look at me.”

            Keith blinked and finally managed to focus back on Lance who was resting his cheek against his hip, stroking him absently with one hand and grasping Keith’s thigh with the other. He didn’t take his eyes off Keith’s, those piercing blues commanding attention.

            “I’m not about to let you close your eyes and pretend I’m someone else. I want you to watch me. I don’t do this for just anyone.” He said and kissed Keith’s hip pointedly.

            “I wouldn’t….I don’t want to think about anyone else.” Keith said, his voice embarrassingly breathless from only 10 seconds of Lance’s mouth on him. “ I haven’t…not for a while. It’s always been you.” He confessed.

            The sparkle that reached Lance’s eyes filled him with pride and he made sure not to look away this time as the other paladin began to lick along his cock slowly, taking his time to unravel him. Keith bit his lip and cupped Lance’s cheek, listening to the other’s appreciative hums and purrs as he took Keith in his mouth again and swallowed.

            The pleasure was blinding and Keith moaned praise to Lance, trailing his fingers in his hair and struggling not climax early and embarrass himself further.

            “You’re…fuck- you’re really good...”

            Lance seemed to know this already and he gave Keith a playful look as he bobbed his head, taking him deeper without complaint. At one point, Lance shuddered and paused for a moment and that was when Keith noticed Lance had one hand in his wet swim trunks and was touching himself while he worked.

            Keith straightened up abruptly and set a hand on the back of Lance’s head, thrusting gently into his mouth to test his limits. Lance flinched for a moment before relaxing to accommodate. He started to thrust into his mouth steadily, observing how Lance’s eyelids fluttered when he tugged on his hair.

            He was gorgeous. This thought overwhelmed every inch of Keith and he licked his lips, smirking when Lance made eye contact with him again, his gaze much more unfocused.

            “You’ve been teasing me this whole time…do you know how distracting you’ve been?” Lance hummed in response and dragged his nail’s down the red paladin’s thigh.

            Keith chuckled.

            “Course you do. But you’ve been wanting this too…thinking about doing this to me…touching yourself to the idea.” Lance’s moan was answer enough and Keith suddenly pulled out, delighting in the way Lance leaned in impulsively to try and continue. “Show me. Touch yourself now. I don’t want to give your ego anymore satisfaction by coming first.”

            Lance was a breathless mess but he still managed to smirk at Keith as he pushed his swim trunks to his knees and started touching himself with both hands, using one to cup his balls while the other worked his shaft. Keith fought the urge to finish himself to the sight. He still intended to take full advantage of Lance’s willing mouth. But he wanted to watch for a moment, let the sight of Lance touching himself to the thought of him sink into his memory.

            “You're really hot.” It wasn’t exactly the most poetic of compliments but Lance smiled at him all the same.

            “You—hah…you aren’t so bad yourself…even with the stupid hair…”

            Keith chuckled, watching Lance hunch over and shudder as he started to build up his climax. He grabbed Lance by his hair and tilted his head back, presenting himself to his waiting lips.

            Lance wordlessly agreed, letting Keith slide back into his mouth and moaning, his hands working himself in time with Keith’s hasty thrusts. He heard Lance gasp upon reaching his climax, spilling onto his stomach and hands with a muffled moan. Keith watched him tense and shudder and his own orgasm struck him to his core at the sight of the other’s ecstasy. He cursed and came into his partner’s mouth, cupping Lance’s cheek as he pulled out and swaying dangerously till he managed to find the column again. He slid down till he was properly seated on the cold floor and he struggled to choke down enough air to feel like he wasn’t floating on the ceiling.

             “So.”

             He looked up at Lance who was wiping his mouth and chest with his earlier discarded towel and struggling to pull his trunks up with shaky arms.

             “Does this mean you’ll stop creepily staring at my lips all the time?”

             Keith rolled his eyes but he was too high off endorphins to fight down a smile as he adjusted his trunks.

             “Probably not.”

             Lance grinned.

             “Good.”

             Lance stood first and grasped Keith’s hand to pull him to his feet.

             “Lemme show you how the pool works, it’s super—“

             “Paladins! Report to the bridge in half a varga for a debriefing on Tralta 11. We’ll be arriving sooner than predicted.” Allura’s voice echoed through the intercoms, making both paladins jump out of their skins as if they had been caught red handed.

             Lance groaned and hung his head as he strolled away from Keith and back towards the main entrance. When the other paladin didn’t immediately follow, he looked over his shoulder, stretching his arms over his head.

             “Coming, ‘Creepy Keith’?” he asked, tone dripping with the same annoying taunt as always.

             Keith crossed his arms over his chest and followed, feigning his usual reluctance to hide a blossoming smile.

             “Lead the way, ‘Lucky Lance’.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my very first fic on ao3! And my first actual complete fic. And the first one I've written in two years. And my first Klance fic.
> 
> This is a lot of firsts.
> 
> Anyways if you want to see seconds and thirds of this sort of stuff in the future, leave a comment!
> 
> I will continue writing garbage about these idiot bois in the meantime.


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